Tuesday, February 9, 2016

THE CONSEQUENCE OF SEDUCTION { blog tour } by Rachel Van Dyken

Reid Emory has never had reason to question his luck with the ladies. As the owner of a lethal set of aqua-blue eyes and a devastating grin, this Hollywood heartthrob always brings his A game…but lately his luck seems to have run out. The actor is in need of some help, and there’s only one person he can trust to take his love life—and his career—to an explosive new level.

Jordan Litwright’s newest client is trying her patience. As a publicist, she’s more than content to stay in the background and let others shine. But when a publicity stunt backfires, she suddenly finds herself thrust into the spotlight—as Reid’s new love interest. And while other men usually overlook her, Reid is focusing in with laserlike intensity. There’s no denying they have serious chemistry.

But once Reid breaks into the big time, can they turn their made-for-the-media romance into a forever love?

{ about rachel van dyken } .

Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of regency and contemporary romances. When she's not writing you can find her drinking coffee at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching The Bachelor.

She keeps her home in Idaho with her Husband, adorable son, and two snoring boxers! She loves to hear from readers!

{ excerpt } .

I wasn’t nervous. Please. The nervous guy was always played by a dude who had no fashion sense, had never kissed a girl, and thought that foreplay was an actual play—in baseball.

I had killer fashion.

Had kissed tons of girls—even secured my first by the age of four from a six-year-old riding the bus to school.

And foreplay was my specialty. I like to think that some men are just gifted in that area—not to boast, but I’m one of them.

Oh, and I was a hell of a baseball player.

So that weird, shaky feeling currently residing in my stomach, slithering its way up my chest? Heartburn.

I popped two Tums.

“Hey, you okay?” Jordan asked. Her big brown eyes were makeup free—making them look even prettier—more natural. She’d given up on her hair so it was wildly cascading in every direction known to mankind, giving her a sex kitten look I wasn’t at all comfortable her sporting outside my apartment.

“Yeah.” I coughed. “Heartburn.”

“Weird. I wonder why you have heartburn after all those shots, five slices of pizza, and three glasses of red wine?”

I grinned. “Beats me.”

She rolled her eyes and grabbed the remote from my hand.

“What are you doing?” I asked calmly, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

“Changing the channel?” she answered without looking at me. “The movie ended an hour ago and you usually go to bed at eleven, so . . .”

“But this is date night.”

“Uh-huh, and now date night is over. I’ll tell you what.” She turned and tucked her legs beneath her. “Since you’re new at this whole dating thing, I’ll give you a free pass and let you in on a little secret.”

“I’m listening.” Okay, so I was trying to listen while my eyes zeroed in on her low-cut blouse and fringes of the black lacy bra that was peeking from beneath. Focus. Focus. Focus. Did she have pizza sauce on her breast?

“When girls come home from a date, they don’t take a hot shower and run their hands all over their body moaning and groaning and replaying every touch, every caress, every kiss.”

“Usually, they pour themselves a glass of wine, toss off their tall heels, turn on the TV, put on their sweats, and read while New Girl plays in the background.”

How was it possible she wasn’t aware she had food on her chest?

“Reid, are you listening?”

“Of course I am!” I nodded. “Wine, heels, TV, books, New Girl.” I know, neat trick, right? Just pull the details out of what they said and repeat them. Works nine times out of ten. Unless you’re Max. If you’re Max, you usually just get punched, because he tends to brag about the fact he remembered in the first place.

“What?” Jordan looked down. “What are you staring at?”

“Sauce.”

“Huh?”

“Sauce.” I pointed. “Right there.”

Jordan rolled her eyes. “I’m not falling for that trick where you point and I look down and you hit me in the face. How old are you, ten?”

“No, seriously.” I moved forward. “You have pizza sauce right here.” I swiped it with my thumb and then licked it off.

“That should be gross,” she breathed.

“I know.”

“But it was kind of sexy.”

“I know.”

“Stop saying ‘I know.’”

I smirked. “Sorry . . . oh, look, you have something right here too.”

This time she did look down. And my ten-year-old self cheered as I knocked her in the chin and said, “Gotcha.”

Defeated, her shoulders slumped forward. “I deserved that.”

“I couldn’t help myself.” I watched in a hypnotic trance as her tongue sneaked out and teased her lower lip. It was the perfect moment for a kiss, but the line had been . . . skewed. I wasn’t sure if it was okay, in the privacy of my apartment, to actually kiss her. I mean, I’d kissed her, but this felt different, more intimate.

“This is the part”—Jordan leaned forward and gripped my shirt with both hands—“where you either kiss me or cough awkwardly, make an excuse, scratch your balls, and cower back in your bedroom.”

“Wow, so many choices,” I mused, meeting her halfway. “Eenie, meenie, minie—” Our mouths met in a frenzy. She tasted like wine and pizza.

Holy shit, it was hotter than it should have been.

My hands moved to her hips as I tried to pull her onto my lap. But her skirt was too tight.

“Damn it.” I tugged harder and heard a split.

Jordan reared back. “Did you just rip my skirt?”

“Small tear.”

“Rip.”

“No.” I gripped the fabric until it gave with a scratchy tearing sound. “That’s a rip.” With a grin I tossed the discarded remains onto the ground.

Jordan stared at the skirt for a few seconds before wrapping her legs around my torso and fusing her mouth with mine. “You owe me a skirt.”

“Can I rip you out of that one too?”

She laughed against my mouth. I stood, lifting her with me, and walked her backward toward my bedroom.

We looked good. She was half-naked, sexy, I was carrying her around like a badass, and then things went . . . south.

And not a good south.

“Watch out for my shoes—”

I tripped over two spiked heels, sending Jordan flying into the wall. She slid down said wall and landed on the plant—yes, the plant, the one she’d kept alive for all those years.

“My plant!” she yelled. I burst out laughing as remnants of dirt and plant sifted through her hands. “You killed it!”

“Whoa!” I held up my hands and backed up, tripping over the damn shoes again and stumbling to the floor.

“We’ll get you a new plant!” I yelled as she smacked my chest. I gripped her wrists and flipped her onto her back. “Don’t you think—”

She bucked beneath me.

“—it was probably time to let the plant go? You know, cut the apron strings!”

“It’s not my child!” she wheezed, tuckering herself out.

“Exactly.” I nodded, then released her hand and patted her cheek.

Her eyes went wild.

{ review } .

If you’ve read any of the
previousConsequences books, you already know that Reid is Max’s brother, and
between the two of them, who knows exactly who is the most… heterosexually
flamboyant. These brothers are a bit crazy that way. They’re drama kings to an
extent who are incredibly good looking – and gosh, do they know it. If you
haven’t read any of the other books, well… you’ll get this same sense for Reid
in the very first sentence of the story.

Like I enjoyed watching Max get
everything handed to him, I was a bit excited to watch Reid get the same
treatment – and from who other than sassy Jordan, his new publicist.

One can only imaging just what this newest gig of Reid's will do to his head, so reading his story and fully diving into his character was fun. I have to be honest though -- of this entire clan of friends, Reid and Max were the two that have always annoyed me to an extent. Max went and proved himself so I was expecting the same of Reid, to be fully enamored with Max's brother. And while I eventually got there... it took a little more time than Max did.

So the 4-star rating following brother Max's 5-star was simply because of Reid and the length of time it took for me to not be annoyed by his egotistical ways -- Ms. Van Dyken's writing is still phenomenal. She has a way of making you smile and laugh throughout the entire story (or bawl your eyes out... that too). Max certainly helps pull the story along, and watching Becca as she deals with him still makes me smile (I love that she started out as the barista who ignored him and his cocky ways). Then, of course, there was Colt and Milo -- Colt has always been the more levelheaded of everyone, so I love catching up with him.

Next up is Jason... that poor guy has been through the ringer as this series has progressed. I can't wait to watch as all his efforts (and injuries) finally pay off..!

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a quick note from { mignon } ...

I AM NO LONGER ACTIVE IN REVIEWING

The last two years has been incredibly rewarding, giving me the opportunity to pick up new-to-me authors, as well as new-to-the-world authors. I have enjoyed supporting publishing houses as well as the indie author, and in doing so, I learned a lot about the marketing aspect of writing a book and selling it as a self-published author.

I have re-focused my journey to more writing-minded. I still read and review! But not nearly at the rate I was; three books a day has turned to three books a month.

I will no longer be accepting individual review requests (unless it's specifically author-to-author, then it will be highly considered).

I will definitely be posting reviews for commitments I have already made, though.Thank you for understanding, & thank you to all those I have worked with over the last year plus!

GOODREADS updates

He is the exact public person I despise. You know the type -- all biblical with publicized praying and verses all over his public persona. Great. Good for you. Bet you're not like that behind closed doors...

Which is exactly what Esther thinks of him.

Saint and Esther attend the same super religious college. Esther is on the fast track to becoming a nun, and no I do not kid, and Saint, given name Francis, can do just about whatever he wants, because he is the star athlete and the school knows he has connections. What in the world can these two have in common? The actions of their parents.

But where Saint does what his father says, usually, because his father is pushing him toward a pro-football careers, Esther follows her parents (father) because if she didn't... Her life would literally be a living hell.

I really enjoyed these two, once we started to get to know Saint a little bit better. My only drawback with the book would be the last half goes by in super-fast time. While it helped to keep the story moving, I would have liked to see more of that time drawn out so the feelings and emotions of our two characters felt more genuine and real -- rather than simply a two month courting that their lives demanded.

I'm giving the book the full 5 stars because it came out of left-field for me. It was a book that I didn't expect to like, but the author wove it in a way that I fell hard for our characters both as individuals and as a couple. I liked watching Esther grow and find her voice in life, just as I liked watching playboy, always for the chase Saint, settle down and find a person to be terribly protective over. I loved him most in the last two chapters.

Here's something you may know about me if you've followed my reviews -- I'm an epilogue reader. I will almost always read the epilogue first. Call me a spoilsport or no fun, or whatever but that's how I've been reading books for years. It's no wonder that when I write books, I tend to have the epilogue all figured out before I even start with "Once upon a time...".

That said... I read this epilogue and while I liked it, I just couldn't get past the ages of our characters. Couldn't do it. So I read the beginning. Still... If anything, the age of our characters was even more pronounced. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to read this. You see, I have an issue with "Happily ever after" and the hardly-twenty crowd, let alone an eighteen year old.

But that's my hang-up.

Another thing you may know about me? I will sometimes read a book in what I call a inside-out fashion. I jump all over the place until I find a snippet of story that absolutely grips me. And people -- there are a few of those parts in Everything. So because I found those gripping parts, I put my faith in Erin Noelle, and I started from page one -- and I gave Everett and Belle a chance.

And I'm so glad I did.

Everett and his twin sister have been making music forever -- literally. They're the children of a rockstar; music has always been their life. When their father's group decides to get back together (dad always said he'd go back when the twins were done with school), Mason tells the label -- if you take me, you're taking my kids: thus, giving Everett and Ashlynn the opportunity to take their music to a larger level than they have before.

Along the way, with a local gig, Everett meets Belle -- and so begins their story.

This is a story about growing up. This is a story about following your heart -- be it for a person or a career, or even both. It is about learning to trust the person you are giving your heart to, and about taking the ever-looming jump into unknown feelings. When you put your life, your wants, your desires in someone else's hands, the world opens up -- and it certainly does for Everett and Belle.

The part I most appreciated was that the author made Everett true to his age and situation. Belle was too, yes, but it was Everett and his new lifestyle that had me wanting to see true characterization for. He's a guy; he's a musician; he's new to love. He makes mistakes. And for those mistakes, I truly got on board with this story.

Everett and his Tinker Bell were incredibly cute. I liked that there's a decent time jump at the end, further allowing -- you guessed it -- growth of our characters. I'm excited to watch more of them when (if?) Ashlynn's story comes out.

TOURING with ...

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FTC Disclosure

Unless otherwise stated, all books I review are books I've received for free from the author or publisher. I receive nothing, monetary or otherwise, for expressing my opinion and/or promoting the books. I do, however, participate in the Amazon Affiliate program, and as such I do receive a small commission when these links are clicked. Affiliate links and free books in no way affect my opinion.